ACLU sues feds to force Catholic charities to provide abortions for illegal immigrant

ACLU sues feds to force Catholic charities to provide abortions for illegal immigrants

By Kellan Howell - The Washington Times - Thursday, April 23, 2015

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government to force religious charities contracted by the government to provide abortions and contraception to illegal immigrants.

The ACLU hopes to obtain government records outlining reproductive health policies for unaccompanied immigrant children in the care of charities under the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), Fox News reported.

"We have heard reports that Catholic bishops are prohibiting Catholic charities from allowing teens in their care to access critical services like contraception and abortion — even if the teenager has been raped on her journey to the United States or in a detention facility," ACLU staff attorney Brigitte Amiri told Fox.

Out of the nearly 60,000 unaccompanied minors that illegally crossed the southern border into the U.S. last year, nearly one-third were young girls and almost 80 percent of those girls were victims of sexual assault, Ms. Amiri said.

The USCCB received a $73 million overall contract from the government to care for the children until they can reunite with family or until they have an immigration hearing. In 2013 alone, the organization received $10 million to care for the surge of children coming into the country.

Ms. Amiri argued that the USCCB was violating the separation of church and state by taking federal money and imposing its doctrinal beliefs on the children the organization is supposed to be serving, Fox reported.

But the organization's leaders argue that they have the right to exercise religious freedom while caring for the minors.

"For decades, we have provided exemplary services to this vulnerable population without facilitating abortions, and despite ACLU's extreme assertions to the contrary, the law not only permits our doing so, but protects it," Kevin Appleby, the conference's director of migration policy and public affairs, told Fox.

Mr. Appleby said it is very rare for a client in the organization's care to ask for a service that is contrary to the USCCB's beliefs, adding that the group informs the government of a girl's desire to access reproductive health care if the government has legal custody of that child.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...ic-charities-/

Neither the Catholic Church nor any other religious or religious-based or backed charity should be engaged by the US government or any other government to perform government funded services to anyone. The ACLU case isn't based on the right issue, the issue is federal money being dumped into religious organizations to do the government's job, and that is a blatant violation of the separation of church and state. Furthermore, there should be no federal money or any government money for that matter being dumped into any 501 C 3 "charity".